Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges Over 150 Points; Longfin Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.63 percent to 24,663.58 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.19 percent to 6,938.37. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.96 percent to 2,677.56.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the financial sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Wins Finance Holdings Inc WINS and Old Second Bancorp Inc. OSBC.

In trading on Friday, energy shares rose by just 0.2 percent.

Top Headline

Adobe Systems Incorporated ADBE posted stronger-than-expected profit for its fourth quarter on Thursday.

Adobe reported Q4 adjusted earnings of $1.26 per share on revenue of $2.01 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $1.16 per share on revenue of $1.95 billion.

Adobe expects Q1 adjusted earnings of $1.27 per share on revenue of $2.04 billion.

Equities Trading UP

ShiftPixy Inc PIXY shares shot up 81 percent to $3.93 following Q4 earnings report. ShiftPixy reported sales of $20.244 million in the fourth quarter, up from $8.46 million year-over-year. The company sees first quarter gross billings of $40 million.

Shares of Longfin Corp LFIN got a boost, shooting up 323 percent to $22.80 after the company announced agreement to acquire Ziddu.com.

Crocs, Inc. CROX shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $12.86. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Crocs from Hold to Buy.

Equities Trading DOWN

Verastem Inc VSTM shares dropped 13 percent to $3.16. Verastem priced its $25 million common stock offering.

Shares of Rosetta Genomics Ltd. (USA) ROSG were down 17 percent to $0.52 after the company agreed to be acquired by Genoptix for $10 million.

TrovaGene Inc TROV was down, falling around 40 percent to $0.26. Trovagene priced its 15 million share common stock offering at $0.30 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.51 percent to $57.33 while gold traded up 0.06 percent to $1,257.90.

Silver traded up 0.95 percent Friday to $16.085, while copper rose 1.94 percent to $3.132.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.19 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.26 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.44 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.27 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.15 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.57 percent.

Economics

The NY Empire State manufacturing index slipped to 18.00 for December, versus prior reading of 19.40. Economists expected a reading of 18.60.

U.S. industrial production gained 0.2 percent for November, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent growth.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs dropped by 4 at 747 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

The Treasury International Capital data for October will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.